Scenic cruising on Geirangerfjord 23-09-2008

A beautiful steamship cruising the fjords on 23 September 2008: the MAXIM GORKIY towards the very end.
Copyright photographs by Luís Miguel Correia

MAXIM GORKIY in Flam 22-09-2008

The MAXIM GORKIY alongside the cruise ship berth in Flam on her final call.
Copyright photograph by Luís Miguel Correia

MAXIM GORKIY at Flam 22-09-2008

The distinctive MAXIM GORKIY funnel framed by Flam's green landscape

Copyright photo by Luís Miguel Correia

MAXIM GORKIY final Fjords cruise 20 to 26-09-2008

On 20 September 2008 the MAXIM GORKIY sailed from Bremerhaven on her final cruise to Norway and the Fjords, steaming up through the North Sea towards a sunny port of Bergen, Alesund, Vik, Sognefjord, Flam, Aurlandsfjord, Geiranger and Geirangerfjord...
On 26 September the GORKIY berthed at Bremerhaven for her last time, turning around and departing for the Mediterranean and the very last Phoenix Reisen cruises on the former HAMBURG.
Copyright photos by Luís Miguel Correia

MAXIM GORKIY September 2008

The HAMBURG / MAXIM GORKIY was a very special ship and I was lucky to have followed all her career from the maiden cruise to South America in 1969 up to the sad end in Alang.
Probably I would prefer not to see what is on the pipeline in terms of photographs depicting her destruction at the scrap yard, and feel much better looking at her many images including those taken in September 2008 when it was supposed she still had a few years trading as MARCO POLO II.
Copyright photographs Luís Miguel Correia

HAMBURG in the USA

Close up photograph of the HAMBURG berthed in a US port, possibly New York or San Francisco, a she was based in California in 1971 and 1972. Foto kindly sent by Nikolay Prikhodko.
Luís Miguel Correia collection

MAXIM GORKY in Spitzbergen

The MAXIM GORKY looking the perfect ship for one's next cruise, hardly a candidate for the breakers at Alang and that fatal grounding at full speed ahead one final time before she starts to get striped of all fittings and that first fatal cut at the bow. In a matter of weeks her mast will colapse and at one point there will be only a dark rusted hull bottom with no relation to the futuristic and proud liner that slid the slipway in 1968 into the river Elbe waters...
So sad nobody could have been able to save the old HAMBURG.
Luís Miguel Correia collection

MAXIM GORKY in the South Pacific Isles

MAXIM GORKY on her final world cruise (2007-2008), photographed in the South Pacific.
Luís Miguel Correia collection